April Small Goals

I can't decide if I want to have a blog or not, what I want it to be about, or how much time or energy I want to devote to it. What I think I don't want to do is have a polished, professional, or profitable blog. This partly because I don't want to put in the time and partly because when I was trying to be more polished and professional, I started to feel like I was living my life with the end goal of photographing my life... which didn't feel good and didn't sit well with my personal ethics and politics. But I do love recording things -- while I was writing my dissertation I produced a "dissertation diary" that was longer than the actual diss -- and blogging lets me do that for my personal style. So I'm OK with dipping in and out, participating in link-ups intermittently, photographing some of my outfits, and sharing my newfound interest in making my own clothes.

One of the link-ups that I can totally get behind is Nicole's Small Goals: its totally affirmative, totally non-consumerist, totally supportive. I set five small goals in February, and even though I never reported out I felt like setting those goals was incredibly useful in helping me manage my life. March, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster. Going on a weeklong vacation and getting sick didn't help, but not having goals written down somewhere was also part of the problem. So, for April:

1. Run 15 miles a week. I did this in February and loved it, and then the wheels came off the wagon in March. I need that run to keep my body feeling good and my mind feeling clear.
2. Go to yoga once week (or more!). This is another thing that really helps me feel good in so many ways, so I need to go!
3. Get ready for Me Made May. I started learning how to sew at the end of February and become totally enamored by making my own clothes. I want to participate in Me Made May, a challenge hosted by Zoe from the sewing and refashioning blog "So, Zo... What do you know?" I'm not sure exactly what goal I want to set for myself or how many garments I can actually make before May rolls around, but I'm going to make with May in mind!
4. Apply for some jobs. Now that I have a Ph.D., I need to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I've been doing all kinds of good stuff like researching, informational interviewing, and reflecting... and now I need to make some stuff happen.
5. Plan a trip to visit my best friend in Providence. We haven't seen each other since Christmas, and that was a pretty short trip. We need an nice long leisurely weekend together! We were aiming for April but that doesn't look like it's going to happen, so I need to at least get something scheduled by the end of the month!

So, them's my plans. Let's see how it goes -- I'm confident that just having some goals will make April better.